About The Founder
How my collecting all started
I first started collecting was when I was 4 years old after my father took me to look for fossils on the Jurassic Coast. Over the years this hobby has developed and several cabinets now contain an extensive collection.
As a young schoolboy at primary school I loved toys. I never threw them away, instead I put them into more display cabinets. These toys included Star Wars, Ghostbusters, Batman, Spiderman, Master Of The Universe, Mask, Transformers, Dr Who, Thundercat's etc, along with the relevant children's annuals. Like every other schoolboy I caught the craze for Pokémon and Yu GI Oh cards which are still sought after today. I also developed an interest in sports and consequently began collecting many sport programs, books and annuals. I particularly liked items related to the Olympic games. At the same time I developed a keen interest in comics, both British and American. An interest which still remains to the present day.
How my collecting has developed and expanded
Naturally, I enjoyed the history lessons at school and particularly those about the Victorian period. To broaden my knowledge I created yet another cabinet to display items from this period along with some fabulous scrapbooks and photograph albums. At Bristol, I was fortunate to have been filmed by the BBC for their Antiques Roadshow - the next generation. This was a very memorable day for me and it encouraged me to start collecting other historical items, some objects dating back to Roman times and earlier.
Everyday items from World War 1 and 2 periods were still easily available and I eagerly collected and researched them whenever possible. These included newspapers and magazines of the periods with their wonderful advertisements and articles. I have developed a special interest in early copies of the radio times, which I consider to be extremely fine examples of social history. My magazines relating to early cinema and theatre performances give me a lot of pleasure despite all of the actors sadly being no longer with us.
Further Developments
When I began my A levels at secondary school my subjects included Photography and Fine Art. Doing photography helped me fully appreciate the skill involved and to admire those who have, in the past, produced wonderful results with equipment we now regard as primitive. The photographs and albums I have now collected reinforce this opinion.
Having obtained some celebrity signed photographs this developed into a collectors interest in autographs and then later to signed books.
Over the years I had often been taken on visits to museums and art galleries so studying art was a great pleasure. There are a wide range of oil paintings and watercolours that have great appeal to me with a variety of artists and subjects. I still like Victorian painters but twentieth century artists such as Sven Berlin, Adrian Hill and Eustace Nash are high on my collectors lists.
Before attending University I developed a very keen interest in tribal art (mainly from west Africa) with old carvings from such areas such as the Ivory Coast, Mali, Democratic Republic Of Congo and Nigeria being some of my favourites.
"Pheasant Ascending" Sven Berlin 1984
The Present And Beyond
At present I am concentrating on Ephemera which has always interested me over the years. This subject gives anyone an opportunity to start an interesting collection. A similar subject for further study in the future is matchbox labels and covers of which I have a large collection with some wonderful specimens dating back to the 19th century. Looking through my large collection of children's books it is clear that collecting postage stamps used to be a major past time. It is perhaps out of favour now at present, but the wonderful and exciting design of these stamps should be always appreciated.
I have recently started a new project of discovering the varied dice games that appear in children's annuals over the past 100 years, these clearly reflect the characters and lifestyle of their times. This is becoming a much larger challenge than I initially anticipated but will no doubt give me a lot of pleasure and "Collecting Memories" in the future.